Beardmore

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Beardmore | Pre War British Sports Cars


Arguably the best pre-war sports car to come from a Scottish factory was the famous 2-litre Beardmore. Designed by that bril­liant engineer, Francis, a racing version gained many successes in the hands of Cyril Paul. In 1924, Paul made best time of the day at Shelsley Walsh with 50.5 sees. The production super-sports car was an attractive, rakish-look­ing three-seater with a polished aluminum body. It featured a 1,192-c.c. (75xll4-mm.) overhead-camshaft engine, beautifully constructed and ultra-reliable.

The chassis was fairly conventional, utilizing semi-elliptic springing. A speed of 70 m.p.h. was guaran­teed by the makers. A novel innovation was the provision of twin pressure-fed fuel tanks (each 4.5-gal.), mounted on each side of the chassis side members. The idea was to allow of a quick switch­over from straight petrol to an alcohol fuel. The tanks were connected up to a hand pump. Beardmores were also one of the pioneers of the use of aluminum alloys in motor-car engineering.

One of the best remembered Beardmores was the almost revolutionary 14/40-h.p. model, which had a s.v. engine closely resembling an o.h.v. unit. This was achieved by the use of a cast aluminum cover fitting snugly over the aluminum cylinder block. The wiring from the magneto was taken through a passage cut in the cylinder block to the spark plugs.
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